A type of drugs called “magnetic drugs” has been conventionally known. This magnetic drug is a drug whose drug element is made to have a magnetic property. A system capable of intensively treating an affected site can be realized by administering a magnetic drug and then applying a magnetic field to a target region such as the affected site and guiding the magnetic drug to the target region.
An example of an administration form of the magnetic drug is a form in which, for example, iron oxide as a magnetic element is micellized together with a drug element and all these elements are made to have the magnetic property. However, the magnetic drug of this form has a problem of losing its magnetic property of the drug as micelles are destroyed due to the influence of metabolism after administration into a body, and the magnetic element breaks away from the drug element.
On the other hand, a self-magnetic drug developed by inventors of the present application does not use the magnetic element separately from the drug, but uses a drug element which itself has the magnetic property. Specifically speaking, the drug element itself is made to have the magnetic property by realizing a form in which the directions of spin electric charges are oriented in one direction within molecules, by applying a molecule designing method of, for example, adding side chains to the molecules of the drug element and forming cross-links between the side chains (WO2008/001851).
This type of self-magnetic drug has various drug efficacies and the inventors of the present application have realized a metal-salen complex having advantageous effects as an anti-cancer drug as one of such drug efficacies (the above-mentioned publication). As the anti-cancer drug itself is given an attribute of the magnetic property, it becomes possible to intensively guide the anti-cancer drug to cancer tissues. On the other hand, an anti-cancer drug treatment regarding which an influence of the anti-cancer drug on areas other than the cancer tissues is reduced and side effects are mitigated can be realized.